Thursday,
Indicted Ex-Official’s House Searched
• Naira Nalbandian
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Parliament deputy Mihran Poghosian at a session of the National
Assembly in Yerevan, 19 May 2017.
Law-enforcement officers searched on Thursday the Yerevan house of Mihran
Poghosian, a former senior Armenian official prosecuted on corruption charges.
Poghosian’s office was the first to report the search, saying that armed
officers of the National Security Service (NSS) “broke into” the house in the
morning. “We regard these repressive actions as a manifestation of political
persecution,” it said in a statement.
An RFE/RL correspondent saw security officers outside Poghosian’s villa. One of
them confirmed that it was raided by law-enforcement bodies.
An NSS spokesman, Samson Galstian, said afterwards that the search was
conducted by the Special Investigative Service (SIS) as part of its criminal
case against Poghosian. The NSS only assisted in that operation, he said.
A court in Yerevan on Monday allowed the SIS to arrest Poghosian after he was
charged with abusing his powers to enrich himself while in office. Poghosian
ran an Armenian state agency enforcing court rulings from 2008-2016.
The SIS claims that he embezzled, through individuals and companies linked to
him, at least 64.2 million drams ($132,000) in public funds.
It also accuses him of giving privileged treatment to a real estate valuation
firm that was contracted by the Service for the Mandatory Execution of Judicial
Acts (SMEJA) in 2014. According to SIS investigators, the firm was registered
by shadowy companies set up by Poghosian “through foreign citizens” in Panama
in 2011.
Citing leaked documents widely known as the Panama Papers, the Hetq.am
investigative publication reported in April 2016 that Poghosian controls three
such companies registered in the Central American state. Poghosian dismissed
the report but resigned as SMEJA chief shortly afterwards, despite continuing
to deny any wrongdoing.
Poghosian’s office on Monday denied the charges as politically motivated. It
said the authorities have effectively disproved his detractors’ allegations
that the once powerful ex-official held hundreds of millions of dollars in
offshore bank accounts.
The office also scoffed at the SIS’s decision to launch a domestic and
international hunt for Poghosian. It released the address of an apartment in
Moscow where it said Poghosian currently resides. The SIS was notified about
his current place of residence “from the outset,” it added.
The office did not specify whether the former SMEJA chief, who had close ties
to Armenia’s former leadership, is planning to return to the country.
Tensions Mount Between Ruling Bloc, Tsarukian
• Gayane Saribekian
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (C) arrives for a business forum
organized by Gagik Tsarukian (L), October 26, 2018.
Tensions between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s alliance and Gagik
Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) rose on Thursday as their senior
representatives traded fresh accusations in the parliament.
Vahagn Hovakimian, a senior pro-government lawmaker, hit back at BHK claims
that many of his younger colleagues from the My Step alliance are incompetent.
He noted that Tsarukian delivered his first-ever speech on the parliament floor
in January, nearly 16 years after being first elected to the National Assembly.
“They need to remember that the leader of their parliamentary group, having
been a deputy for 16 years, spoke from this rostrum for the first time ever in
January this year,” said Hovakimian, who is thought to be close to Pashinian.
BHK parliamentarians reacted angrily to that statement, triggering a shouting
match with Hovakimian and other members of the parliament’s pro-government
majority.
“How dare you bad-mouth that person?” said the BHK’s Sergey Bagratian.
“’First-ever speech,’ ‘second-ever speech’ … There are so many things you
haven’t done for the first time in your life.”
“You must not say anything about the leader of our faction anymore,” added
Bagratian.
Tsarukian also slammed Hovakimian when he spoke to reporters afterwards. “What
have you done in your life to be able to utter Tsarukian’s name?” he said,
appealing to the former journalist who had long worked for Pashinian’s
“Haykakan Zhamanak” daily. “You haven’t done a tiny bit of what Tsarukian has
done.”
The tycoon, whose opposition party is the second largest parliamentary force,
used the row to reiterate his criticism of the current government’s economic
policies. He said that the government has yet to bring about economic
betterment which was promised by Pashinian during and after last year’s “velvet
revolution” backed by the BHK.
Tsarukian charged early this month that many government officials are
incompetent. This was followed by bitter recriminations traded by My Step and
the BHK over a transgender activist’s bombshell speech delivered in the
Armenian parliament.
On April 9 Pashinian accused a senior BHK lawmaker of organizing a “political
provocation” against the parliament majority loyal to him. Tsarukian and his
associated rejected the accusation.
Tax officials raided some of the businesses belonging to Tsarukian in the
following days. BHK representatives said the tax audits may be politically
motivated. The State Revenue Committee denied that.
Yerevan Denies Discussing Russian Peace Plan On Karabakh
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - The Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Anna Naghdalian, at a news
briefing in Yerevan, December 20, 2018.
Armenia said on Thursday that Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian did not
discuss with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov a 2016 Russian plant
to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh at their meeting held in Moscow on Monday.
Azerbaijani media quoted Mammadyarov as saying that the plan proposed by Russia
shortly after the April 2016 fighting in Karabakh was on the agenda of his
talks with Mnatsakanian. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who mediated
the talks, confirmed this on Wednesday.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Anna Naghdalian, denied
Mammadyarov’s claim, however.
“No negotiations on any plan are underway at present,” she said in written
comments to RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “Furthermore, the substantive part of
[Armenian-Azerbaijani] discussions continues to center on getting familiarized
with, clarifying and ascertaining each other’s positions.”
Naghdalian said Mammadyarov’s claim undermined efforts to boost “mutual trust”
between the conflicting parties because it contradicted a joint statement
issued by the three foreign ministers after the Moscow meeting.
According to that statement, the warring sides reaffirmed their earlier pledges
to strengthen the ceasefire regime and take other confidence-building measures
in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. Mnatsakanian and Mammadyarov also
“exchanged detailed views on key aspects of the settlement process,” it said
without elaborating.
The Russian peace plan has still not been made public. Lavrov on Wednesday
refused to disclose its key details. He said only that the plan is in tune with
the basic principles of a Karabakh settlement which have repeatedly been laid
out by the U.S., Russian and French mediators in recent years.
In a March 9 statement, the mediators reiterated that “any fair and lasting
settlement” must involve “return of the territories surrounding
Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; an interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh
providing guarantees for security and self-governance; a corridor linking
Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh; future determination of the final legal status of
Nagorno-Karabakh through a legally binding expression of will.”
Senior Armenian Official Indicted In Corruption Probe
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - Davit Sanasarian, the head of the State Overisght Service, speaks to
journalists in Yerevan, June 21, 2018.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) on Thursday brought corruption
charges against a senior government official and political ally of Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian who actively participated in last year’s “velvet
revolution.”
The NSS said that Davit Sanasarian, the head of the State Oversight Service
(SOS), will therefore be suspended pending investigation. But it decided not to
arrest him for now.
Two senior officials from Sanasarian’s agency, which is tasked with combatting
financial irregularities in the public sector, were arrested in late February.
The NSS said they colluded with a private firm linked to them in order to
personally benefit from government-funded supplies of medical equipment to
three hospitals.
A senior executive of the firm, Zorashen, was also taken into custody. All
three suspects denied the charges.
Sanasarian defended his arrested subordinates and protested their innocence at
the time. He was subsequently questioned by NSS investigators.
In a statement, the NSS said that it has collected sufficient evidence to
charge Sanasarian with an abuse of power aimed at benefiting the “company
effectively managed by his subordinates.” The SOS chief will face up to four
years in prison if convicted.
Armenia - Davit Sanasarian (L), head of the State Oversight Service, and Artur
Vanetsian (R), director of the Natonal Security Service, at a cabinet meeting
in Yerevan, February 21, 2019.
Sanasarian strongly denied any wrongdoing when he spoke to reporters several
hours before the NSS’s announcement. “Nobody, no structure can link me with any
corrupt practice because I reject any corrupt practice,” he said after
attending a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
Sanasarian declined to comment on a news report that one of the arrested SOS
officials, Samvel Adian, gave incriminating testimony against him. “I’m not
authorized to speak about that,” he said. “But I can say one thing for certain:
I could not have been involved in any corrupt deals. There can be no such
evidence.”
Sanasarian also reiterated his concerns about the NSS investigation, saying
that he has conveyed them to Pashinian. He stressed that he does not believe
that the prime minister ordered the NSS to prosecute him for political reasons.
Sanasarian, 34, is a former opposition and civic activist who had for years
challenged Armenia’s former government, accusing it of corruption and
incompetence. He played a major role in the mass protests which brought
Pashinian to power in May 2018. The latter named him to manage the SOS shortly
after becoming prime minister.
Sanasarian ran in Armenia’s December 2018 parliamentary elections as a
candidate of Pashinian’s My Step alliance.
Armenia -- Davit Sanasarian (L) and other opposition activists lead a
demonstration in support of gunmen that seized a police station in Yerevan,
July 29, 2016.
The NSS claimed earlier that the arrested SOS officials arbitrarily forced
medical institutions to rig rules for the choice of companies supplying
expensive equipment for hemodialysis, a treatment of kidney failure. It said
they wanted to make sure that “the business entity sponsored by them” wins
tenders for such supplies.
Health Minister Arsen Torosian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service on February 26
that he asked the NSS to investigate “external interference” in
dialysis-related procurements because the new tender rules threatened to
disrupt the vital medical services provided to around a thousand patients
across the country.
The dialysis equipment tenders were until then won by a handful of private
firms. Earlier in February, one of their owners accused Sanasarian of
deliberately driving his Frezen company out of business. Sanasarian dismissed
the allegations, saying that the SOS has simply broken up Frezen’s “monopoly”
on supplies to one of the hospitals.
U.S. Lawmakers Visit Armenia
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian poses for a photograph with members
of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy, Yerevan,
.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian called for U.S. assistance to what he called
“radical reforms” implemented by his government when he met with eight members
of the U.S. House of Representatives in Yerevan on Thursday.
The U.S. congressional delegation comprised David Price, the chairman of the
House Democracy Partnership, and other members of the bipartisan commission
tasked with supporting legislatures in emerging democracies. It met with
Armenian parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan on Wednesday.
Pashinian told the visiting American lawmakers that boosting Armenia’s
relations with the United States is one of his administration’s foreign policy
priorities. According to a statement by the prime minister’s office, he briefed
them on political and economic reforms launched in the country after last
year’s “velvet revolution.”
“Nikol Pashinian emphasized that his government is taking consistent steps to
strengthen the institutional and economic power of democracy and expects the
support of our international partners, including the United States,” said the
statement.
“The Congress members assured of their willingness to assist Armenia in
promoting democracy, implementing economic reforms and strengthening the
Armenian-American friendship,” it added.
Speaking in the Armenian parliament late last month, Pashinian complained about
Washington’s “zero reaction” to democratic change in his country. He seemed
unhappy with the fact that there has been no significant increase in U.S.
economic assistance to Yerevan since he came to power a year ago.
The U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Lynne Tracy, responded to the criticism when
she spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian service on Monday. Tracy, who accompanied the
U.S. lawmakers during their meetings in Yerevan, argued that the U.S. has
provided over $2 billion in aid to Armenia since 1992 and is committed to more
such assistance.
Press Review
“Haykakan Zhamanak” reports that residents of a growing number of rural
communities across Armenia are taking to the streets to demand the resignation
of their mayors. “In some cases the work of local administrations is paralyzed
because members of local councils boycott sessions,” writes the paper. “In
other cases, the confrontations take more serious forms: demonstrations,
clashes, street blockades and so on.” It says one of the reasons for this
unrest is that village councils want to play a larger role in local governance,
emboldened by Armenia’s transition to a parliamentary system of government.
Also, it says, community mayors “performed different functions” under the
country’s former regime.
“Zhamanak” reports that prosecutors have reopened a criminal investigation into
the 2013 assassination of Hrach Muradian, the Dashnaktsutyun-affiliated mayor
of Proshian, a big village just west of Yerevan. The paper links the
development to Dashnaktsutyun’s recent criticism of law-enforcement
authorities’ failure to solve the murder and threats to stage regular street
protests. It claims that the prosecutors are thus “turning the situation
against the former authorities.” It recalls that Muradian was shot dead shortly
after defeating an election challenger nominated by Serzh Sarkisian’s
Republican Party (HHK).
“Zhoghovurd” says that many in Armenia have for decades felt that knowledge and
professional skills are less important than connections for making a career in
the public and even private sectors. “It is therefore not accidental that
whenever there is talk these days of appointing someone to a [government]
position few care about the latter’s professional qualities,” writes the paper.
“Many are curious instead to know what party they are from, who they are
related to and whether they marched during the [2018] revolution … And when an
official slips up or messes up their area of responsibility everyone starts
pointing the finger at the intermediary [who presumably helped them get the
job] and point to their political connections or relatives. So it’s about time
we also had a revolution in the field of evaluation of officials.”
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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